RTÉ Radio 1 and 2FM make modest gains in listenership

RTÉ's morning and drivetime shows on Radio 1 and 2FM have made modest gains in their audience, but the middle of the day is proving trickier for the two stations, the latest Joint National Listenership Research (JNLR) figures suggest.

Morning Ireland remains the most listened-to programme in the Irish market with an audience of 437,000 in the year to the end of March, up 4,000 on the last industry survey.

Ryan Tubridy now has 335,000 listeners, up 4,000 since the survey released in February – which covered the calendar year 2022 – while Today with Claire Byrne is up 6,000 listeners at 327,000.

Ray D’Arcy also made a partial reversal of his recent decline in listeners, adding 4,000 to reach an audience of 181,000, while Drivetime has a listenership of 214,000, up 6,000.

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The audience for all five shows remains below where each one stood a year ago, despite these recent gains.

The midday Radio 1 slot inherited from Ronan Collins by Louise Duffy three-quarters of the way through the survey period saw its listenership slip 9,000 to 213,000, while News at One was down 11,000 at 299,000. Liveline lost 4,000 listeners, taking it down to 306,000.

On 2FM, the breakfast show with Doireann, Donncha and Carl climbed 6,000 to 135,000, with the 2 Johnnies up 11,000 to 130,000 at drivetime. Jennifer Zamparelli has 133,000 listeners, down 1,000, and Tracy Clifford has 109,000, down 7,000.

On the weekend, Brendan O’Connor’s Saturday show has 327,000 listeners, down 11,000, and his Sunday show has 319,000 listeners, down 10,000.

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Overall, RTÉ Radio 1′s share of peak-time national listening has nudged up from 19.7 per cent to 19.8 per cent, while 2FM’s has gone from 5.7 per cent to 5.8 per cent.

Today FM’s market share eased back from 9.6 per cent to 9.3 per cent. On weekdays, Ian Dempsey added 5,000 listeners at breakfast, taking him to 208,000, lunchtime presenter Pamela Joyce added 2,000 listeners to reach an audience of 136,000 and Ray Foley’s listenership climbed 3,000 to 163,000. But mid-morning hosts Dermot & Dave now have 205,000 listeners, down 2,000, while The Last Word with Matt Cooper dropped 4,000 listeners to 168,000.

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On the Bauer Media-owned station’s Saturday schedule, Weekend Breakfast with Alison Curtis added 9,000 listeners, taking her audience to 179,000.

Over on Bauer-owned Newstalk, which has a national market share of 7 per cent, Pat Kenny held firm at 174,000, as did Lunchtime Live on 106,000, while Sean Moncrieff added 2,000 listeners to reach 98,000.

Newstalk Breakfast, presented by Shane Coleman and Ciara Kelly, slipped 3,000 to 149,000 compared to the last survey, but still has a higher audience than it did a year ago, while drivetime show the Hard Shoulder fell 7,000 to 152,000.

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Industry group Radiocentre Ireland described an increase of 48,000 in the daily audience for Irish radio, taking it to almost 3.3 million adults, as “hugely impressive” and a high for recent years.

“I am delighted to see radio continues to grow audience in Ireland and with 91 per cent of adults tuning into radio every week, it is clear that radio listening is booming in Ireland and today’s figures are a great reminder that Irish radio is a central part of people’s lives,” said Radiocentre Ireland chief executive Ciarán Cunningham.